The Day of the Defender, white male privilege, anger and change

Feb. 23 in Russia is the Day of the Defender. It used to be the Day of the Soviet Army. It changed to something else when the Soviet Army no longer existed in name, and now it is a day that celebrates men. Here’s why this might be a great thing to adopt for America. (If you believe in White Male Privilege, don’t tune me out just yet; this article is specifically for you.)

White men and those that love them and depend on the patriarchy like a Stockholm Syndrome sufferer depends on her captor are angry and motivated to yield their power in a way that is detrimental to the development of society, so that we can revert to some sort of ideal 1950s era when men were men and everyone else was less than that. They aren’t the only ones that are angry, motivated and wielding their power to remove the gains that America has had over the past 8 years.

Heterosexuals feel attacked by the growing alphabet soup of letters that include LGBTQ… and their allies. Safe and legal gun owners feel attacked every time the media covers another gun shooting. Christians feel attacked every time a religion that isn’t Christianity is brought up. I am sure that there are other groups that feel under attack by the changes that had been implemented, especially if they have a monopoly over their respective money making areas, like Big Pharma and the dirty energy industry that includes coal, oil and gas.

While these groups have considerable overlap, they also have considerable power, including greater voting power for those living in the least populous states and greater access to the political regime, even because of the basic whiteness of their skin or the green that lines their pockets. They are wielding it for one reason, and that reason is the same reason that people who talk about White Male Privilege are trying to change the system to make it equal for everyone – They feel like they have been marginalized.

Their way of life doesn’t matter anymore. Their belief systems are antiquated and disappearing. They are facing reverse discrimination. Whether or not you believe these things to be true and whether or not these things are factually true, they still perceive it to be this way. Perception is reality. They have been conditioned to see reforms in the healthcare system as a threat to their basic belief in capitalism. The move to renewable energies is an attack on their love of cars, driving and the freedom to go from one place to another without having to schedule or plan. The marriage between to people of the same sex, or no sex, or pan sex is a degradation of the marriage between a man and a woman, and to their specific marriage.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. For those who want to change the way things are, it is important to understand the other point of view because the other point of view is the one holding the power. They stand behind the wall of the castle, and it’s going to take a lot more force to dislodge them than it will to have them dislodge themselves. Somehow, those who can see the White Male Privilege need to reveal how this privilege exists, especially to those who are poor, white men, who work hard all their lives, who do the things that the Lord says they should do, and never quite achieve the American Dream.

This demographic is the one that needs desperately to feel empowered because they have been disenfranchised from a society that says they should be reaping the rewards of being good. They are not the enemy. These are the factory workers, farmers and hard-working people who make up the backbone of Trump’s support who are scared to lose their job (because an immigrant will take it away). They are scared to be killed by a radical Muslim (because of incidents like Bowling Green and what happened in Sweden last night). They are scared that a black, secret Muslim from Kenya ruined the safe America that the Republican Party tells them existed before Obama took office. We know that it didn’t exist, that the crumbling of America began with Reagan’s deregulation and Jack Welch’s firing people from one of the most profitable companies in the world in the 1980s. That this crumbling continued with the war in Kuwait and Iraq, the search for WMDs that never existed and the use of fear after 9/11 to divide the country, which was followed by the Too Big Too Fail bailout of banks and the auto industry. But what we know doesn’t matter. All that matters is how the situation has been perceived.

In America, white, heterosexual, Christian men are reviled by those who love to spout White Male Privilege rhetoric. We are told to shut up and that if we aren’t women, maybe we should just sit and listen, even when we are trying to understand the subject. (Trust me, White Male Privilege isn’t easy to see when you are a part of it and yet, you still haven’t seemed to gain anything from it with your enormous debt and wondering if you are going to have enough money to pay the rent this month.) We are called racist, even when we are doing our best not to be, and when we try to explain, we are dismissed with our mansplaining. We are bashed and blamed for numerous ills of society, even when we are in the same protest attempting to show our support for the cause. While we are being told that we aren’t listening (because it is hard to hear someone call you names that seem like all the things that person is fighting against), we simultaneously are not being listened to.

Some of those who fight against White Male Privilege are just too tired to talk to another troll; it’s understandable, but that attitude won’t change anything. Some are just so fed up that they are happy to take their frustration out on the closest or stupidest man they know. However, if someone is genuinely trying to see things your way, you should try to help them the best you can at the time that it happens. Which brings me back to Day of the Defender or “Men’s Day” as it is colloquially known.

Some people will say that every day in America is Men’s Day, but maybe adopting a specific day will help channel some good feelings and help the men see that they aren’t all bad. While changing the system will only come from the outside, it has to also come from the inside. A token day could be the start of a new relationship between people in our country. In Russia, men get a day, and women get a day, and that is the start of equality. Then when the old guy says, “You know the woman is supposed to stand there and wait until you say the food is okay.” The young girl can respond, “That was the old Russia; this is the new.” No one gets their feelings hurt, and the scales are tipped toward equity and respect.